The Fabulous World of Costa Rican Cinema

Cinema in our country occupies a great place of preference; the assistance to the movie theaters is of great quantity. However, the country’s film production is modest, with the production of documentaries, short films and the advertising industry predominating. The creation of feature films is rather scarce, although since the second decade of the 21st century production of new fiction films has increased, mainly independent productions, which face the problem of a very small market, lack of financing with high production costs, the apathy of the public and also the competition of commercial cinema from other latitudes. In this case, there has been maintained a practical production of documentaries, some of them are commissioned by non-governmental organizations and a vast advertising industry that employs a good number of audiovisual professionals.

Movies and more movies

In our country, it is common for advertising campaigns to be carried out for the rest of Central America and in a large number to all the Americas and Europe. International productions use the country as a film location. Only one private university provides the opportunity to study the film career, it is the University of Costa Rica, which graduates audiovisual producers through the School of Collective Communication Sciences and the National Learning Institute which owns the Image Center, a school for video and television productions.

The Ministry of Culture has an office that specializes in ensuring the development of Costa Rican cinema. The Costa Rican Cinematographic Production Center is the state office that has a lower budget when compared with the entire state apparatus. There are also co-production efforts between this office and independent producers. In addition, for approximately 15 years the Costa Rican Film and Video Festival has been held, which is a festival that gathers the bulk of the national production in fiction, documentary and video art.

With a large number of people accustomed to observing good Hollywood productions, in the Costa Rican cultural scene there is also a public that is accustomed to seeing amateur cinema, alternative cinema, sponsored mainly by Sala Garbo, which specializes in alternative films, and also the effort made in some universities, peripheral cultural centers, and even video rental centers to propose such productions within the framework of thematic series, such as human rights, author, among others.

Some movies made in our country

These films have been divided into four categories: Costa Rican films, co-productions of Costa Rica with other countries, foreign films filmed in Costa Rica and foreign films set in Costa Rica but filmed in other countries.

The films produced and directed by Costa Ricans, are:

-“El Retorno”, in the year 1930, is a silent film, which was directed by the Italian Francis A. Bertoni.

-“Elvira”, in 1955, a short film directed by Alfonso Patiño Gómez.

-“Milagro de Amor”, in 1955, was directed by José Gamboa and is based on a zarzuela by Alcides Prado.

-“La Apuesta”, in 1968, a costumbrista (native traditions) film by Miguel Salguero, which is about some peasants from San Antonio de Escazú who make a bet to see which of the two comes first to Limón, at a time when there was no road.

-“Nicaragua: Free Homeland or Death”, This documentary was filmed in Nicaragua by the Costa Ricans Víctor Vega and Antonio Yglesias.

-“La Segua”, produced in 1984, a film of romance and terror, which is based on a play by Alberto Cañas Escalante, was directed by Antonio Yglesias and produced by Óscar Castillo.

-“Gestación”, made in the year 2009, is a dramatic film that was directed by Esteban Ramírez, it is about teenage pregnancy.

-“Agua Fría de Mar”, in 2010, directed by Paz Fábrega.

-“El Ultimo Comandante”, in 2010, led by Isabel Martínez and Vicente Ferraz.

-“Tres Marías”, in 2010, a feature film directed by Francisco González.

-“Espejismo”, a dramatic, fiction and psychological thriller film produced in 2014 by José Miguel González.

-“Maikol Yordan de Viaje Perdido”, produced in 2014, is a comic film and was directed by Miguel Gómez and produced by La Media Docena.

-“Entonces Nosotros”, produced in 2016, is a romantic comedy and was directed and starred by Hernán Jiménez.

-“Amor de Temporada”, produced in 2016, a short film by Sergio Pucci.

-“El Sonido de las Cosas”, produced in 2016 and that led by Ariel Escalante.

These are some of the most famous movies that were made in our country, a great pride for all Costa Ricans!

Licentiate in Education specialized on Cultural Development. English-Spanish Instructor/Translator. Proofreader/Content writer with an emphasis on Science, History and Sociology. Very Proud Father. Friend to all.